confessions of a naive blogger

I have always viewed myself as being above average in being in touch with culture...especially in the last three years. I started blogging thinking it would be a way for me to keep my writing skills sharp. Honestly, I started blogging because my pastor friends were blogging and I am fiercely competitive! We all have our approach to blogging and I've used mine as a cathartic tool in the final stage of detoxing from traditional church. I wanted my blog to be more of a personal, cyber-journal. Not anymore.

I knew that anybody with access to the Internet could find my blog. I also knew that the less I posted on other people's sites and left it off message board and email sigs that I could remain relatively obscure. I guess that was naive to some degree. The fact is, if someone wants to find you on the Web and you have any presence there you will be found.

Completely unconnected people have commented about the blog. I was talking to a guest at The Journey yesterday and she mentioned she had read it. With the heightened traffic on our church website, more people finding my blog is inevitable. That means simplyken is going public (like it already isn't?). From now on I'll be open about it. I'll put it in my email sig. I'll probably put a link to it on our church website. I guess I'll let the world into the mind and soul of Ken Miller...follower of Christ, husband, father, high tech redneck, football lover, and inhaler of Little Debbie Devil's Squares. Oh yeah, and not-so-naive-anymore-blogger.

Can blogging help your church?

One of the guys that goes to The Journey Church asked me if I blogged and pointed me to an article at churchmarketingsucks.com. At their site they mentioned an article by Ken Gosnell where he gives four reasons why blogging can help your church. When I saw that it was a lifeway.com article, I was a bit suspect. They're not exactly on the cutting edge, ya know.

So I read the article and did a little poking around. Gosnell may be a consultant, but I'm not sure he's a veteran blogger. I'm a bit taken back that Lifeway would feature an article by a guy that, from what I can find, has been blogging for two months. Huh? Am I missing something here? Nevertheless, here's my take on Gosnell's article.

Gosnell says that: 1. Blogging will bring churches closer together as it closes a communication gap.

He speaks of this primarily as a way of communicating vision to the church that gives people the ability to share ideas and thoughts in a timely way. I think it might work if the people that participate didn't grow up in a churched setting. If churched people comment and participate, the likelihood that they'll shoot an idea out instead of shooting at the vision is pretty slim. On the other hand, if you can get unchurched or recently converted unchurched people to participate it might work. I'm still cautious about buying into this point. Blogging for vision casting might work in my context . I'm just not sure how.

Gosnell says that: 2. Blogging will help to develop sermons and classes.

I want to know how he's done this successfully. By that, I mean how has he personally gotten a broad spectrum of people to participate in the sermon building process? At the risk of sounding cynical, it seems more like a "geez, this is a great idea and it would really change how messages are prepared and delivered" more than "here are a half dozen sermons that have been developed using the process I described". I'm not buying what he's selling so far.

As for me, I've always tried to listen to people and see what their issues are in life and I would welcome a way to expand that. I think blogging could be a great way to get ideas and life stories (used with permission of course). Bottom line: I'm not from Missouri, so you'll still have to show me this one will work.

Gosnell says that: 3. Blogging will break down barriers and remove masks.

I'm totally in agreement with this one. I think it's great for people to see what I listen to, read, think (but not everything) and do. It seems like the post-modern generation values transparency highly. I've never been one to play games. I say take me for who I am, not what you want me to be. When Gosnell says, "People experience significant freedom to communicate when blogging", I say make it known that "Anonymous posters will be deleted and placing of verbal IEDs is not acceptable."

Gosnell says that: 4. Blogging will help the church to engage the culture.

Maybe. People that make up the blogosphere account for less than 4% of the American population. My guess is that many bloggers lean to the techy/geeky side. Granted, culture is being engaged, but the slice of culture you're engaging isn't that big. On our church's account, it's probably not a bad idea.

All that being said....

I'm open to exploring blogging as a tool to engage culture but I don't think it's the next big thing in breaking down communication barriers in or into the church. I do think it has a niche in the communication matrix of a church. I'm just not sure how it's going to work for The Journey Church yet.

renascentfaith.com

Brian Turner is an emerging kind of guy that has his head screwed on right. I found out about him through my buddy Charlie after he read an article of Brian's at The Ooze. When I went to Brian's website/blog at renascentfaith.com I was pleasantly welcomed after I made a simple comment affirming his article. It's a good place to hang out. He writes with a positive clarity rarely found in a subculture that is immersed in negativity. Read and enjoy.

I had only one minor issue with Brian. It was the potentially disastrous omission of a picture of a Telecaster guitar on his website. There were only pictures of Les Pauls. Not good. Les Paul guitars have their place in music, but since Brian hails from Dothan, AL it was only fitting that he had a true Southern guitar adorning his already good place to hang. He took care of it within 24 hours...with a picture of like six Teles. Cool. All my fellow Tele fans say, "Thank you."

By the way, "renascent" means rising again into being or vigor.

God and a medium mocha

I've been breaking in the new guy this week. Some that cruise here prayed fervently with me for a like-minded worship arts pastor. Well, you can mark it down; God answered in an incredible way. Casey Darnell is everything a modern worship church could want and God saw fit to direct him our way. Go figure. Very, very cool.

Special thanks to my bud Heath Baltzglier, bass player in the NorthPoint/7:22 fraternity, to turning me on to this cat daddy. Special thanks to Neal Tankersley of Red Sky and NorthPoint/BigStuf/ad infinitum for the network lead to Heath. Thank you God for your faithfulness. We turned a big corner this week. I'm talking bigger than ginormous.

It all happened because of God and a medium mocha.

"Get in touch with your peelings, Cuc."

Here's a cool little video that does a nice parody on Star Wars. Whatever your position is on natural foods, you'll be able to mindlessly burn about 5 minutes here.

Here's to you Obi Wan Canoli.

the holy dissatisfaction of Moby

In the most recent edition of Relevant Magazine, techno artist Moby speaks of his faith in Christ and makes a statement that every apathetic Christian should embrace. OK, I know...if someone is apathetic they probably won't care. How about this? For Christians that want a deeper faith but find themselves in a religious rut, they should embrace Moby's challenge. If those of us that do care would live our lives with more holy dissatisfaction, a lot more people would find the joy of a relationship with God.

Moby said:

You can never be a follower of Christ and think that you're doing a great job.

Put that in your religion pipe and smoke it down.

statcounter.com

We use www.statcounter.com to track our web traffic. It's a freebie. Most hosts have something free anyway, but this one is easier for me than the one Interland provides. I don't know how to insert the code into the website. All I know is that it's a blast to look at the report and see who's been looking at your site. It only gives town, state and country but that's still pretty cool. All of the typical stuff like which pages they cruised and how long they were on your site are tracked as well as a bunch of other stuff.

It was easy to see how much our traffic increased when we ventured into billboard advertising for the first time. People headed to the Mall of Georgia from Suwanee, Duluth, Roswell, and Alpharetta have given us some good spikes. I just want to know how somebody from India finds our site? What the heck is up with that?

Here's the billboard...

some music reviews

Mute Math ep. A couple of the guys from now defunct Earthsuit started this band. While a bit eclectic, their music is soothing and fresh. With mixes of techno, reggae, and Brit pop it's a mix that I find strangely addictive. The song Peculiar People is eerily like an early Sting tune. The words are great and a bit less cryptic than when they did the Earthsuit thing. I personally think 4 of the 7 songs on the EP are outstanding. The song OK is an incredible song of grace. The band is supposed to record a full length project in the Fall, pending more radio play and EP sales. My worship arts pastor saw them in Pensacola this week and said they were phenomenally close to their studio sound. I can't believe I actually like these guys.


United is the modern worship ministry of Hillsong. You can tell that the next generation has been strongly influenced by their older mentors Darlene and the other dude that writes most of their songs. A lot of people recommended this and, frankly, I was dissapointed. The slower stuff was the best, but the rest was musically uninspired. As usual the lyrics are spot on but it didn't make me want to crank the volume. It seemed to have the dynamic that some of us were talking about at lunch a few days ago. When a huge crowd is involved, mediocre music and speaking takes on an energy level higher than it deserves. That's my take on this project and I'm sticking to it. We'll cover a couple of the slower songs on this one...maybe.


Dwell is a worship CD recorded at the Cincy Vineyard by artists from both the US and the UK. It's a best of the best of music from the Vineyard Church worldwide. The first three cuts are worth the price of the CD. Dwell, More Than Ever (our church begs us to play this song all of the time) and Love Me Like You Do are the best of the project. There are a couple of other good ones in my opinion. The whole thing has a very Coldplay feel to it. Nice.

The cool factor

In a rare occasion, I had the pleasure of meeting someone that I first learned about through their blog. Marty Duren is leading New Bethany Baptist Church through a huge transition right now. He's also a voice in the emerging church within the SBC. We met for lunch at the Red Sky coffee house and cafe (It's one of the coolest places around that doesn't have a website. What gives?). If you're ever in Buford, GA you can find it across the street from the Buford Post Office.

Marty says I have cool hair. Thanks for the compliment Marty.

Marty is cooler than cool. Marty is a guy I couldn't be, even though I tried. He's in the process of transitioning a church that, if they don't change, will see the world pass them by at hyper-speed. He's taken the church a long way. He's lasted a lot longer than most guys have in transitioning a church. I think transitioning a church is tougher than planting. Not only do you have to be spiritually at the peak of your game, you have to have great leadership skills.

Don't get me wrong, planting a church is no easy task. I have plenty of friends that have done/are doing it. It's just that I think the old saying, "It's easier to birth a baby than to raise the dead" is so true.

On the other hand, if we had more faith we could see more entombed churches raised from the dead. Here's a thought......If we had more faith, more than the 25% of churches that are planted would survive and thrive.

It takes both hard work and faith to transition and/or plant a church. Both are very different tasks. Both are very cool. Cool meets at Red Sky.

burb missionary revisited

My bud Gary Lamb made a great comment about burb missionary. In addition to:

1. Create a space that has visual continuity with current culture.
2. Engage people.
3. Talk about things that matter to people.

He said I should add:

4. Create a place where relationships can be formed.

I agree. It has to go beyond engaging people. Since most of us in our area are reaching transplants and not "from here's" it's essential that we give them a place to connect to other human beings. It's a primal need.

Thinking out loud here...that means that the space at our new location will need to be changed. We currently have space allocated for an office for me. No more. That space will be opened up and we will put in casual seating coffeehouse style. In fact, if we can pull it off, we'll compact the resources area or move it so that the foyer/entry will be much more open and inviting to conversation.

My office will become a laptop that sits on a table in the lobby with wireless access. I don't view it as a cool new way of officing. Face it, people have been doing it for a long time. I simply see that it's necessary for me to give up office space which is near and dear to me (remember I'm a 3rd generation preacher) for the potential impact it will make on people that have a desire to be connected.

Small groups/growth groups/life groups etc. will play a part also, but for now the burb missionary thing is all about Sunday morning.

Thanks Gary.

burb missionary

This evening our family went to visit our church's new location. We're in a school right now and are going to lease 6,700 sq ft of a strip mall. I've always had a missionary mindset. I dig the whole PDC thing...Find a target group and strategize how to reach them for Christ.

According to a friend that looked at planting a church in my area, the population here is about 80% unchurched. Kind of mind boggling since there seems to be a zillion churches in North Atlanta. The zip codes that we impact have an average age of 33 and they have 2.3 kids. The bulk of people end up in the 18-45 year old range. So what does that mean if I'm going to be a burb missionary?

For starters, we have to do church for the next generation. We have to offer culture things that they perceive as adding value to their lives like positive life change, good music, coffee, community, and a safe place for their kids. Some churches do pretty well at making that happen. The only problem is, per capita the number of churches that do it great are pretty scarce. I can name couple of church plants in our area that are doing better than most, but for the most part I would say churches are missing the target.

What do I think it will take to be a burb missionary?

1) Create a space that has visual continuity with current culture. When people walk into where you meet do whatever you can to give them a vibe that says, "These people know what important to me." For The Journey that means they'll walk into a Starbuck's like atmosphere with a full service coffee bar. Just beyond that will be an eye catching kid's ministry check-in that any Discovery Point would be willing to put in their lobby. When they walk into the auditorium they'll probably feel more like they're in a club or an oversized and unfreaking-believable home theatre. Did I mention that it would seat less than 200? I didn't think so. A driving force in that number was finances. Another driving force is that we want to...

2) Engage people. I watched U2's video they made to kick off their How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb project. Instead of a huge media blitz, they hopped on a flatbed trailer and drove around NYC playing their music. Along their route, they engaged the public. They shared their pizza with a fan. They let some guy sit in and play drums for an entire song. They let a guy make his debut singing. They did a free concert under the Brooklyn bridge. Marketing genius you say? Maybe. I call it fresh, exciting, and an astute analysis of what our culture wants...to be engaged. For The Journey that means engaging the seeker. Let them see us worship. Take risks and engage people. Jesus did.

3) Talk about things that matter to people. Talk radio understands culture. They talk about things people are interested in. So does TV. So does the film industry. So should the church. Whether it's expository or topical teaching, just make sure you apply the truth of Scripture to meet people's needs and overcome their fears. Honestly and clearly engaging people with God's word is what my worship arts pastor calls innertainment. It's all about offering the life-changing Gospel in an interesting but clear way.

More on being a burb missionary as I take this from theory to reality.

give me the red pill already

This is kind of freaky. A rash of hacks into assumably secure core computers. I wonder if the hackers are headed up by a guy name Morpheus?

A binge blogger diagnosed

I was having lunch to day with some friends. They brought up the fact that I post in spurts.

I would say I'm a binge poster. Actually, I think the term that I used today was that I tend to vomit, feel better, then vomit again.

The epiphany was that I tend to write pretty much when I'm ticked off. I've been an angry human for the last ten years. Get mad...vomit...feel better....get mad...vomit...ad infinitum. If you've ever pastored an established church or are currently pastoring an established church you know what I'm talking about. No more. The detox is finished.

Thanks Tony, Charlie, Gary, and Rob.

The sacred tradition that is Moleskine

My friend Charlie is generous in many ways. For an old guy he sure stays on the cutting edge of stuff....I love you man. He introduced many of us to the venerable Moleskine. I'm no Hemingway, as evidenced in this blog, but as a pastor I am a writer of sorts. I've gotten less electronic in the last couple of months even though I still write sermons straight into PowerPoint. I've essentially replaced my PDA with 3x5 cards, known in culturally astute circles as a hipster pda. And, wanting to be on the edge of culture as the ever hip Charlie, I bought my first Moleskine the other day.

Here's my thinking...If Hemingway and all those other brilliant guys carried one of these around, maybe there's a creative vibe they have.

For two centuries now Moleskine (mol-a-skeen'-a) journals have been the legendary notebook of artists, writers, intellectuals and travelers. More popular than ever, Moleskine notebooks possess stylish minimalism and unmatched quality. This century new legends are being created with the help of this modest book. Moleskine journals help in daily life, work and play, at home and traveling the world. This is the journal that has been as it remains today a truly reliable friend - always at the ready. Helping in life - helping create and capture life stories.

No, not a superstitious kind of thing, but the kind of vibe you get from feeling the pen touch the paper. The ability to see emotion in your handwriting when you look at something you've written a couple of days later. Sort of an ancient connection to the mind's process of putting something on paper. I'm convinced our creativity is tied to our spirituality. That's why I'm using the Moleskine as a prayer journal. As God speaks sermons come. As God speaks I can write something down and not hate myself for failing to remember it. The artistic masters were onto something. They just happened to use the really cool black notebook with the elastic band and the nifty little pocket in the back.

Okay, so you can get a composition notebook at Wal Mart for a fraction of the cost but it's sort of like being able to afford a BMW and choosing to drive a '72 Volkswagen Bug instead. Get the Bimmer.

All that being said, I have a new passion and craving for time spent with God. It wasn't the Moleskine that made the difference, but the Moleskine will keep well and it does have a great track record with great minds.

I can use all the help I can get.

the new worship guy

33% of the people that read this blog have requested that I tell you more about the new worship guy that I hired. That means that 1 of the three people that actually read this thing asked! So here you go...

His name is Casey Darnell. He's 26 years old. Sings like Chris Tomlin, plays guitar and really knows how to lead worship. He's passionate about his relationship with God and passionate about being a worshipper. Like me, he's not fond of the trend to overproduce the worship environment but, like me, he believes that an environment has to be created for worship to be effective (a subject to long to get into on this blog). His favorite band to cover is U2, and I can't wait for our band to do Vertigo in the next month or so. Casey has led youth worship at Buckhead Church, FBC Woodstock, Church at West Cobb, and adult worship at NorthStar Church. He's been around enough big ministries to know what needs to be done and has a vision for excellence. He spent six years in purgatory...er...youth ministry before he felt God calling him to do worship full-time. He grew up independent Baptist and since then has sufficiently transitioned to a kinder, gentler Christian. :-)

How did we find him? I have coffee a couple of times a week at a coffee shop in Buford. One of the perennial keys players of the NorthPoint fraternity works there part-time to help his parents out (they own the shop). We got to be a bit more than just an acquaintance and I asked him if he knew of anyone looking to move into a church setting. After going three deep into the network, I came across Casey. To tell you the incredible timing and circumstances would take too long, so for the sake of space let's just say that God had His handprint all over this thing.